teer gathered up
thirty-two buffalo robes, which he subsequently took to Helena and sold
at good prices as relics of the battle. Several of them were badly
stained with blood, but this, of course, enhanced, rather than
lessened, their value in the eyes of the class of buyers he sought.

Captain Comba was sent out on the morning of the 11th with a party of
men to bury the dead soldiers and citizens, all of whom were found,
recognized, and decently interred. Rude head boards, obtained by
breaking up cracker boxes, were placed at the heads of the graves, on
which were written, or carved, the name, company, and regiment of the
soldier, or the name and residence of the citizen, whose grave each
marked.

At 10 o'clock that morning General Howard arrived with his escort, and
on the morning of the 12th, his medical officers reached the field and
gave to the suffering wounded the first professional care they had had,
for owing to the rapid movements of Gibbon's command, the surgeon who
had been ordered to join it, failed to reach it. On the 13th, General
Gibbon assigned to duty with General Howard to aid in the pursuit of
the Nez Perces, Captain Browning and Lieutenants Wright and Van Orsdale
with fifty men, all of whom volunteered for the service. Gibbon then
left the battle-field with the wounded and the remainder of his command
for Deer Lodge, where he arrived three days later. He was met en route
by a number of wagons, ambulances, and nurses, sent out by the people
of that town, and on arrival there, the wounded were carefully cared
for, the command dispersed, and each company returned to its station.

Thus the Battle of the Big Hole had been fought and won and had passed
into history. Thus more than a score of lives had been laid down and
many men sorely wounded--some of them maimed for life--in another
effort to teach hostile Indians the necessity of obedience to the
mandates of their White Father.

Thus another page had been added to the glorious record of gallant
deeds done; of bloody fights waged by our soldiers in wresting from the
grasp of lawless savages the great and glorious West, and making it a
land where industrious white men and their families might live in peace
and safety. And every man, woman, and child who lives and prospers in
that great West to-day owes the privilege of so doing to the brave men
who for a quarter of a century have camped, tramped, and fought over
the broad domain where now all is pe